


Press Conferences

by rayhne



Series: The Emergents [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 12:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16994958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayhne/pseuds/rayhne
Summary: Thanos is coming and Tony Stark is recruiting super-powered beings and teams when someone walks into his office ...OrTony has the best press conference of his life.





	Press Conferences

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is just a silly little thing that came to mind. And it has decided its not a one-shot ... ::sigh:: ... I'll be posting bits and pieces as we go.
> 
> The Emergents are from another fanfic of mine (not posted here).

Tony leaned back and rubbed at his eyes before looking over the list again. There were far more super-powering people out there then he’d originally thought and he felt a warm glow that so many were stepping forward in preparation for the battle with Thanos. Even a few villain groups were joining, though for now, they were keeping that under wraps. And then there were the exVengers, who thought they were a hero group when everyone else saw them as the opposite but as long as they shut up and obeyed orders no one cared. Now, as for the press conference in five hours —

“Boss?” FRIDAY said tentatively. “Mr. Ross is here to see you.”

Now that had been a surprise. Everett Ross had unexpectedly resigned from the CIA and disappeared. There were rumors but nothing solid. Tony didn’t believe the sneers of cowardice and traitor. There had to be something more and he told FRIDAY to let him in.

Everett walked in, a thick folder in his hands. “Tony. I see Rogers is back.”

Tony arched an eyebrow, gesturing for the other man to sit. “Don’t tell me. He gave you the ‘Captain America is disappointed in you’ look and tried to give you ‘an earnest talk’.”

“Something like that.” Everett set the folder on the desk. “I know there are probably rumors running but — well, that doesn’t matter. There was a family meeting called concerning —” he hesitated then finally just opened the folder to take several photos from it and rose to spread them in front of Tony. “Well, this.”

Tony glanced over them then reached out to shift through the photos slowly, finally looking up as Everett set a flash drive on the desk between them.

* * *

The press conference was one to introduce the representatives of the various teams that would be working together against the alien invasion. Some had brought members to lend support and they were bunched behind the representatives. At the last minute, Tony had a chair added at the end, next to him but had no time to explain why when the press conference started.

“I’m pleased to announce that, within the last few hours, I was contacted by another group of Enhanced or maybe mutates, who use the name the Emergents. They are a previously unknown group who have chosen, up to now, to remain hidden. Now with the safety of the Accords and the threat to the planet, they are stepping forward to offer their help. As I said, they just contacted me within the last few hours so I don’t have the complete information on them yet. However, after this press conference, we,” Tony looked down the table. “Will be meeting with their representative to get more information. For now, I am pleased to introduce that representative. Everett Ross, the former Deputy Director of Joint Counter Terrorism Centre and formerly of the CIA.”

Everett, dressed casually in a button-down shirt and jeans, calmly walked out to sit next to Tony. They exchanged a quick glance before turning their attention to the press.

“Welcome to the shark tank,” Tony mumbled and Everett smiled slightly.

Questions came fast and hard and it wasn’t long before someone directed one to Everett.

“What are Emergents?”

“The Emergents are several families covering two generations that have unique abilities. We will, in the future, be discussing with experts as to why we have these abilities.”

“Are you an Emergent?”

“I am. I was born an Emergent.”

“What can you do?” Someone demanded.

Everett glanced at Tony, who shrugged and grinned. With a chuckle, Everett pushed himself from the table and rose, stepping around it to walk toward the front of the stage. By the time he reached it, he had shifted from human to half-wolf to full wolf. He stood there for a moment, swinging his head to look over the reporters with pale lupine eyes before turning, his body reversing the shift so he was fully human when he reached the table.

“I would like to stress that I am not a werewolf,” he said as he sat down. “This has nothing to do with lycanthropy. It has nothing to do with curses or the full moon or silver. I am a lupine metamorph in that I can shift from full human to half-human, half-wolf to full wolf. I have been able to do it, literally, my entire life.”

“Can all your people do that?” Someone called.

“Each family has different abilities. My family are all lupine metamorphs.”

“And more information on the Emergents will be released as we all find more about them.” Tony clarified. “We will be arranging interviews and documentaries on not just the Emergents but on all the teams that we are allying with. Well, as much information as they are comfortable releasing.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Everett said with a sigh. “My mother will be more than happy to tell everyone all the embarrassing stories of me and my siblings as wee cubs and the evil vicious dust bunnies that lived under the furniture.”

“Oh, God.” Jennifer Walters looked down the table at him. “Please tell me there are photos.”

“There are videos.” Everett didn’t sound very happy about that. “I honestly think that she’s been waiting for us to go public just so she can submit them to America’s Funniest Home Video.”

“Okay, wait.” Rhodes had his thinking face on. “I’m no expert on this but either you were really small or —”

"Mom thought we were better than Roombas. Once a month, like clockwork, she’d gather us up, tell us to shift, and send us under the furniture to play. After about an hour she’d drag us out, usually by our tails, vacuum us off, and chuck us into the bathtub. Or the pool, whichever was closer.”

“Okay, you know what.” Tony was looking at his phone, smirking. “I have no idea how your mother got my private number —”

“Oh, god, mom.” Everett let his head fall into his hands.

“But she sent a photo and I’m putting it up on the big screen.”

The big screen behind them lit up to show a photo of a wolf cub, covered with clumps of dust, dangling from someone’s hand. Laughter erupted and Everett half-turned his head to look at it.

“Oh, good. It’s not me.” He straightened. “I would like to point out that our fur color matches our hair color and when we were really little, our fur was white.”

The cub’s fur was a very dirty brown.

“How do you know that’s not you?” Jennifer asked.

“Because I’m the one trying to pull my brother from mom’s evil grasp.”

There was, indeed, another cub biting the other’s dangling foot. Or gnawing on it, no one could really tell.

“I was always very helpful that way. I used to teach my brothers how to hold their breath by pushing their heads under water and standing on them.” He grinned at the looks that got him. “Okay, I was a little shit when I was young.”

“Nice to know you’ve grown out of that.” Tony snarked. “Oh, look! She sent a video!”

“Oh, god. Did I forget a birthday or something? Because if I did I’m really sorry.”

“And here we go.”

The video was of a pool with four small cubs, all white, paddling around in it. Another wolf, apparently in the gangling adolescent stage with swirly brown and tan fur, was stretched out on an air mattress floating in the middle of the pool.

“Ev! Stop trying to drown your brothers! Go pick on your sister.” A man’s voice called and the wolf on the air mattress let out a series of protesting whoo-whoos. One of the swimming cubs headed for her, letting out high-pitched ‘arks’ as he tried to scramble onto the air mattress. She finally reached down to pull him onto the mattress in front of her where he proceeded to smack the other cubs in the head with a paw as they tried to join them.

“Your son’s being a little shit.” A woman’s voice came from behind the camera.

“Why are they suddenly my sons when they’re being little shits?”

“Because that comes from your side of the family. I’ve met your family, remember?”

The video ended as the larger wolf, obviously tired of her sibling’s antics, planted a paw against him and shoved him off the mattress where the others converged on him.

“Trust me, everyone,” Tony said as he scanned his phone. “We did not plan this. Though I suspect your mother did. Oh, look! Another video.”

“Why the hell did I agree to this?” Everett groaned.

This video started by showing an empty hallway.

“Boys! Go get your sisters! Go on! Now.”

There were scrambling sounds as the four wolves, now all long legs and awkward adolescent gait, ran down the hallway — one managing to skid and bounce off the end wall — and into a room to the left. Within seconds they were coming back, one by one, the first three with a small auburn-furred cub dangling from their jaws and the last carrying a very large and irate-looking cat.

The room dissolved into helpless laughter.

“I would like to stress,” Everett said as the laughter finally started to fade. “That the cat was fine and was very used to this because mom would call the cats and they wouldn’t always come so we’d go fetch them. In fact that cat, as she got older and had a hard time walking due to arthritis, would actually sit down and meow until we came and got her and took her where she wanted to go.”

“I can easily see that becoming the next big meme sensation.” Tony returned to his chair. “Wasn’t it kind of dangerous to have cats with you guys running around?”

“Well, my mother loved cats so when we were little, in that awkward horrible stage where we didn’t really realize that we could hurt them — because we had really sharp teeth and no awareness of how people or cats got hurt — my dad got some friends together and built a very elaborate catwalk and cat trees system with cat doors near the ceiling into rooms we couldn't get into. And they weren’t allowed in our rooms. The downside is that it didn’t take long for the cats to realize we couldn’t get to them there so they would get on the walks or the trees and tease us until we lost our minds. And then we’d find all their toys and destroy them.”

When the press conference was finally done, Tony walked out with Everett, the former still eying his phone. “That has to be the best press conference we’ve ever had. I owe your mother a very large gift basket. Though I do want to know how she got my private number.”

“She probably got one of the technopaths to find it,” Everett said.

“What? Techno — technopaths? You got technopaths? Really? Where have you been all my life?”


End file.
